Also I kinda hate Hajimari because it's changed enough (not going to use retcon, but it almost feels like it) of CS4 that even though I hated CS4 at the time I feel like if I went back and replayed CS4 now I'd actually enjoy it. But I'm not replaying a 100 hour+ game I didn't like probably ever. So now I just feel like CS4's alright but I never got to experience it in a good way.
Oh man, I finally finished all the new doors (this patch was pretty lengthy, one of the doors was way too long -_-) and I'm guessing you're talking about
All spoiler quotes in this post are for Hajimari no Kiseki
The 3rd story with the A Rank Bracer vs. the 3&9 assassin organization?
Seems pretty clear they are the Calvard protag and it fits with Kondo's remark that they are "somewhat visible" in Hajmari since
Since you don't get to see their face/front side yet.
I'm definitely on board with this and hyped for Calvard. All I want out of Calvard is either a 2 game story or at most trilogy 3 game story max....and no school. And this looks like it would satisfy the latter at least.
Also going by this, it seems like they might be trying to make the next arc a little more mature/darker for an older audience. Would be the oldest lead yet I think? And the antagonists murder the shit out of people so unless they make it toothless I'd expect the Calvard game to have a body count. Would be cool.
I also like the childhood friend setup of 3 friends all trying to achieve the same goal from different methods, one being with CID, her being through the Bracers, and the other I'm assuming is In
Also nice to get a female lead again, should be less harem-sim that way. She said she's a couple years past HS, so I'm guessing that would put her around age 20?
yeah. her whole relationshgip with her friends also parallels zin.both do not feel worthy of their latest promotion and have one friend in the government/CID/Rocksmith and another that returned pursuant to an unknown/dangerous agenda
Also I kinda hate Hajimari because it's changed enough (not going to use retcon, but it almost feels like it) of CS4 that even though I hated CS4 at the time I feel like if I went back and replayed CS4 now I'd actually enjoy it. But I'm not replaying a 100 hour+ game I didn't like probably ever. So now I just feel like CS4's alright but I never got to experience it in a good way.
Personally don't feel anything wrong with new Kiseki being revealed in December's shareholders meeting and being released next year. 3 years in development is an usual standard for Kiseki in-between arc.
I don't see how people keep interpreting that Rean would have a spot on Calvard arc. Princess told him to polish his skill for the time when he is required to swing his blade again, and Rean clearly had an idea that the land's issue are not gonna be solved by him, much like Cassius once said similar thing at the end of Sky SC. He mentioned he had to prepare for the unforeseen future.
I know lots are rooting for Elaine being MC, but I doubt Falcom gonna go with Bracer again since we're teased with many new elements surfacing in Calvard since they're where money amass right now, and among those we were mentioned of PMC, Heiyue also sounded like in decline. In short there are many choice for the group main MC might be associated with, instead of just being Bracer again.
Yea I can definitely see how that Cold Steel Drama CD could alleviate Rean's character a bit.
However, now I can go in knowing full well that he has some insecurities and understand his goal of uncovering his past. It shows that he still has a long way to go in finding his place in society. It's still wack for people who don't watch the Drama CD tho.
I scientifically determined the tier of each kiseki character that was playable in some form/or summonable through player action in some form(alas I remembered wrong also the list I used might have been incomplete or I missed characters).
Also exception made for 1 character for inclusion.
Some characters might rank higher than you expect mostly cause the awesomeness of their main partner rubs off of them.
Done with Hajimari post launch content, it took me about 20 hours to go through almost everything (played one game of Pom'tto and decided to not bother with it).
The next Door Trials are quite challenging, and menuing to upgrade the characters is still so tedious (pressing R1 ~30 times just to upgrade one particular characters...).
Going through the remaining floors was too repetitive and it felt a bit too long.
The new Episodes/short stories fixed what I complained on the base game regarding the worldbuilding.
And regarding the next protagonist: I hope it's going to be the new character introduced in one of the short story. But I also hope that they will keep the Cross Story of Hajimari and give us 3 protagonists instead.
Elaine and her 2 childhood friends: one Bracer route, one CID route and one underworld route. It's quite ambitious but it would be so good if they managed to pull it off.
Major spoilers for next Calvard game and end of Cold Steel:
First short story is Rean in Calvard hot springs looking for his sensei and runs into new ninja group Ikaruga and gets his sword broken in half by a new major sword ninja character girl. Has to go home fix his sword and prep up for his Calvard return.
It's a little funny in the 5-game running meme that Rin will never leave Kiseki. I thought they really would finally give Rean a rest and if he shows up in Calvard, just be like a side character like Estelle/Joshua in Crossbell/Erebonia. But the way this story is setup it sure seems like at least one of the Calvard plotlines is personal for Rean and about his sensei, his sword style history/lineage and having to overcome this new swordmaster.
So while he's not gonna be the main character, it sure seems like he's going to be a major character in Calvard lol. I'm starting to think Rean is really going to be in every Kiseki game for the rest of the franchise. I think he's alright, don't like him or hate him, he's just kind of nice, polite and boring, but Kondo must really love Rean.
Hmm, from what I understood, Rean won't be important in the Calvard arc as he stated that it's not up to him to fix whatever happens in the Republic.
It felt more like he was told to prepare for the endgame events of the series.
Hmm, from what I understood, Rean won't be important in the Calvard arc as he stated that it's not up to him to fix whatever happens in the Republic.
It felt more like he was told to prepare for the endgame events of the series.
Am I crazy or does Hajimari have a higher amount of unnamed NPCs than any kiseki game before it?
I'm still just in the second part of the Rean route
(just picked up Elliot and Jusis/Millium)
So maybe this is just a temporary thing but being used to like 90% of npcs being named I'm pretty surprised that it feels like more 70% so far. Like the plaza before the royal palace has 6 unnamed ones which feels about half the NPCs of that area.
The place where you pick up
Elliot has another super fun returning NPC story line, which is the boy from Raquel befriending the young noble girl.
I have more time this week and hope to get through a decent chunk of it. Playing it piecemeal feels pretty bad to me I at least want like an uninterrupted 4 hours to really get through stuff for these type of games.
Almost at the end of CS3.
I'm really scratching my head with some events here:
You telling me that all of a sudden Gaius, Emma and Laura can take on McBurn and the Steel Maiden simultaneously just by themselves? And Alisa, Fie and Sara can take on the jaeger king, Shirley, Siegfried and Sharon? Wut?!
Almost at the end of CS3.
I'm really scratching my head with some events here:
You telling me that all of a sudden Gaius, Emma and Laura can take on McBurn and the Steel Maiden simultaneously just by themselves? And Alisa, Fie and Sara can take on the jaeger king, Shirley, Siegfried and Sharon? Wut?!
Almost at the end of CS3.
I'm really scratching my head with some events here:
You telling me that all of a sudden Gaius, Emma and Laura can take on McBurn and the Steel Maiden simultaneously just by themselves? And Alisa, Fie and Sara can take on the jaeger king, Shirley, Siegfried and Sharon? Wut?!
Falcom gave up on consistent power levels roughly 10 years ago.
I don't blame them, cause keeping that sorta thing consistent across a series this long is tremendously difficult. Still, "power" is now determined DBZ style, which is pretty boring cause you can't have stakes on who's strong or not. Example, who cares if you fight Cassius in future games or not now that they've abandoned the whole deal? Now that strength is purely plot determined, Cassius can just be a regular dude whenever the writers dictate it. Boring!
It's actually the same deal with the romance. If nothing regarding power or romance is set and defined, fans can eternally debate and question among themselves without the planners having to actually define anything themselves, stringing people along forever. It's a pretty cynical way to write a story and characters and ensures you can write something long term without having to trip up over something you wrote earlier. Also boring though!
Almost at the end of CS3.
I'm really scratching my head with some events here:
You telling me that all of a sudden Gaius, Emma and Laura can take on McBurn and the Steel Maiden simultaneously just by themselves? And Alisa, Fie and Sara can take on the jaeger king, Shirley, Siegfried and Sharon? Wut?!
I think the power levels are mostly fine, with the CS3 end indeed being a bit of a stretch.
But you guys forget that there was a time slip between CS2 and CS3. The original class 7 is partly supposed to be on Enforcer level now. Esp. Gaius (dominion!), Emma (on Vitas trails), Laura (Arseid school master) and Fie. Sara has been on that level from the beginning, well and Alisa has her Robot
I mean it's not about defeating McBurn, but just about buying some minutes anyway
pretty massive to the point where I've wondered about how Arios felt more like a chump.
That said I take less issue with any particular grouping being able to combat lock any of the powerhouses like in the example.
I think that is honestly fine. What gets me more are the fluctuation in different more duel like engagements. Stuff like Arseid vs Rean, Rean vs Aurelia, Rean vs Wallace, etc the whimsical nature of the outcomes makes it all very inelegant.
Hajimari spoilers
That game at the beginning has Rean semi job again cause he's conflicted. Rean is basically a powerhouse ping pong ball. Ogre mode off/on, Spirit Unification off/on(cause he still has it after ogre mode has vanished), conflicted yes/no, Valimar activated yes/no, Valimar weapon yes/no, etc.
If we're talking about the overuse of the trope of villains never going all out and turning tail that's different 100% agree. What doesn't feel as bad when done in a series consisting of maybe two parts largely, can feel awful to the point of parody when done over a series of 4 games.
I think the power levels are mostly fine, with the CS3 end indeed being a bit of a stretch.
But you guys forget that there was a time slip between CS2 and CS3. The original class 7 is partly supposed to be on Enforcer level now. Esp. Gaius (dominion!), Emma (on Vitas trails), Laura (Arseid school master) and Fie. Sara has been on that level from the beginning, well and Alisa has her Robot
I mean it's not about defeating McBurn, but just about buying some minutes anyway
Level 1 students were also fighting dozens of assault archaisms in Chapter 1 though. They should have been slaughtered but ended up being completely unharmed IIRC.
That was quite the dramatic and abrupt ending, color me surprised if any of those characters actually stay dead. The fact that the teams that stayed behind on the upper layers were listening in on the conversation that was taking place all the way on the bottom was hilarious.I hear CS4 isn't great but I'm very excited for the return of Estelle, Joshua, Renne, Loyd, Elie and Rixia, can't wait.
If they go with a direct translation it will probably be something closer to Origins or Genesis than Beginning.
But I have my suspicions they will pull a Cold Steel and go with something that isn't a direct translation, mostly to avoid that issue of prequel confusion.
After being undecided to start SC for the last 4 months I decided to play it today
Impressions considering that I have only started the prologue chapter
- I really like how they are portraying Estelle sadness at the beggining, it really makes you feel for her, I know that the incest stuff is really problematic if you think too deep from it even if you know that they are not blood related, but I'm willing to give it a pass since in the end it still feels like a very innocent love between 2 younglings who had to met due to a terrible situation. That being said I wouldn't disagree if people find it gross. Also I love the music that was played when Estelle spoke with Cassius on both Grancel and thier house.
- Anelace is really cute, I love her hair ribbon, I wish that they used her more
I just finished Hajimari Ch. 3 last night. So far, I've been enjoying it
- I have no idea where the story is going to go from here and I really enjoy that. Not sure what the hell is going on with Rean & his magic Knight-summoning eye at the end of his Ch3 route but I'm definitely intrigued to learn more.
- The quality of Kitsune & co's translation over the CS4 one is pretty good - the editing feels a lot more natural & less awkward. The translation program has been improved. It sucks that my PS4 Slim only outputs 720p for Remote Play but it's been fine otherwise
- So far, minimal about of annoying pervy bullshit which is good
- Elise has shit to do now & can actually fight which elevates her character a small bit
- I feel like I have no idea when I should be tackling episodes. Do I need to grind in TRC to get the stones to unlock episodes? I only have 3 unlocks right now (the first Swin/Nadia one and then two other random ones). I'm not quite sure how this system is supposed to work - I think I prefer the 3rd''s doors so far.
Zero's translation was screwed up three ways from sunday and required meticulous unscrewing. Azure's translation was less egrerious and they now have their version of Zero as a template to determine names, speaking patterns and other technicalities that'd have to be hashed out at the beginning.
So I just got a mail from NISA saying special editions of Cold Steel IV for both NA and Europe will be delayed. NA shipping starts in release week, while Europe shipping starts the week of November 2nd.
I am incredibly bummed and this close to using the 50 bucks psn gift card that I still have and don't know what to do with on a digital edition of this even though after handling it this way, that's hardly what they deserve (I know it's a pandemic and all, but what with them billing early to "make sure everything runs smoothly, this is just an extremely poor turnout of events).
EDIT: Now that I read that again, the wording makes it sound like it may actually affect all purchases of all versions made on their stores, not just the limited edition. Welp.
